What Eric Stern reports is complex but it isn’t rocket science. It is the story of how the city Council you elected is telling you how much they are going to tax you. If you’re happy with what they are telling you – re-elect them. Until then keep an eye on them
Eric Stern delegated to City Council on November 25th.
On December 10th, Mayor Marian Meed Ward had a Letter to the Editor published in the Hamilton Spectator in which she was very critical of two of the delegations that were made when she was not in the Council Chamber – she was at the Joseph Brant Hospital getting her picture taken with Premier Ford who was announcing new funding. The Mayor was not given the opportunity to speak at the event.
The Gazette invited Eric Stern to write about his experience.
My name is Eric Stern and I delegated to the Burlington City Council on November 25th, 2024. The mayor missed my delegation, choosing instead to attend a provincial funding announcement at Joseph Brant Hospital. Despite not being at the Council meeting, the mayor had something to say about one of the questions I asked in my delegation on her social media in which the Mayor said: “attacking the personal integrity of anyone – whether a council member, staff, or another member of the community – is not welcome.”
What Happened? Let’s start with a timeline.
October 25th, 2024 – Burlington releases the 2025 budget, stating “The projected overall tax increase for 2025 is now 4.97 percent”. Page 13 and page 27 of the 2025 budget show Burlington’s portion of our tax bill is increasing by 7.5%.
The numbers being used are a little fuzzy. I have always maintained that, when discussing the Burlington budget, the increase in the tax rate is what matters to taxpayers, which at this point was 7.50%.
The city prefers the 4.97% number which is an average of the four numbers in the Increase% column. Of course they would, it is a smaller number.
October 30th, 2024 – Halton Police Services releases their 2025 Budget. The 5.65% shown above is now 11.84%, shown below. The projected overall tax increase for 2025 is now 5.76%.
November 4th, 2024 – Staff presents the Burlington budget to Council.
You can see on this screenshot, taken from minute mark 2:54:12, that Mr. Basit, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) presented the “Projected property tax increase is 4.97%”. Note that Basit is using the outdated and lower averaged number.
What did I say to cause the mayor’s comments on social media?
“It was interesting to watch Mr. Basit present a 4.97% on November 4th when the Halton Police budget had been made public on October 30th. Did Mr. Basit knowingly misrepresent the truth?”
There are other explanations for the CAO telling the council and the public “the property tax increase is 4.97%” – that averaged number again, when it was known to be 5.76%. Perhaps staff, including the CAO didn’t realize the Police Services budget change would impact the overall tax increase. It is confusing the way other budgets, not related to Burlington’s, cause the overall Burlington number to change.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns represents the City on the Police Services Board. She is with Halton Police Chief Tanner and has to approve the more than $400,000 he is paid annually.
Perhaps the council member who sits on the Halton Police Services Board didn’t understand the impact.
We elect a mayor and Councillors to be our representatives. If a staff member presents incorrect information council must raise an objection. When council fails in this responsibility is it wrong for a taxpayer to step in and challenge staff? Which is what I did.
In Burlington, staff presenting incorrect information is not an attack on residents but a resident questioning the information is an attack on the personal integrity of staff.
In 2022 the city began using that “averaged” number, because it is lower, instead of the number that represents the actual tax increase over the previous year. When changes from other levels of government impact the overall increase the very least the city can do is tell us.
My rhetoric aside, now that all the various boards and governments have approved their budgets the tax increase will be 7.51% over the previous year. That 5.82 number is the average of the increases made by all three levels of government. The Police Services increases are included in the Regional budget.
The tax increase that the Burlington City Council controls stands at 7.51%
Should the city explain why staff presented a 4.97% increase number to council and the public on November 4th, 2024 instead of the known overall number of 5.76%?
Should Burlington stop talking about an averaged number and stick to their budget increase of 7.51% when talking about the budget?
Was I wrong in asking for honest, accurate information or is the mayor correct that we can’t question what staff tell us at the risk of “attacking their personal integrity”?
The Mayors Chamber of Commerce luncheon took place on Monday at the Burlington Convention Centre.
The crowd was decent enough.
The Mayor made her comments, insisting again that the tax increase was going to be 5.76, which is true, but also very misleading and really poor communications policy on the part of the City.
That 5.76 represented all the taxes: Boards of Education, the Regional levy (which has yet to be determined), the Police Services expense – which is included with the Regional levy.
The Mayor and her council members are responsible for what Burlington spends and what it needs in the way of a tax levy. The residents of the city deserve to know what the city is doing to them financially.
At this point, the tax increase over last year is expected to be 7.83%. The city uses the words “deemed to have been approved” in statements they issue these days.
The Regional Council will determine what their tax levy is going to be on Wednesday – at that point, the city will be able to set its tax levy.
The City CAO Hassaan Basit used the same 4.97% number.
This was not the picture we used in the first version of this story. Shortly after it was published Councillor Kearns advised me that my zipper had come undone. I asked her for suggestions on what could be done. We ended up agreeing that photo-shopping the picture and putting in a fig leaf would do the trick.
At Chamber of Commerce events a table is usually set aside for media. In the past CHCH has had cameras, Cogeco had a crew and a number of print media sent a representative.
This year there were just two media people: Hunter Lawson from Burlington Today and Pepper Parr from the Burlington Gazette.
There was no table, there was no lunch. We did get a glass of water.
Unless things dramatically change, the Ontario government’s much-touted target of building at least 1.5 million homes across the province by 2031 won’t happen. It’s that simple, according to several industry experts – and basic math.
The reality, driven home by everyone from politicians and housing advocates to urban planners, is that we need new homes built now – or we won’t be able to accommodate our growing population and the relentless housing crisis will worsen. Ontario’s current climate, however, isn’t exactly one that facilitates the widespread construction of new homes. And the obstacles are plenty.
In the wake of recent eyebrow-raising reports that reveal slowing housing starts and disheartening projections, the big question is: Will Ontario actually reach its target? For many, it’s already more of, “Just how far off will it be from hitting it?”
The Perfect Storm For Slow Builds
Before we jump into it, it’s important to consider how we got here in the first place. Factors include a combo of high and rising land costs, heightened interest rates, rising development fees, construction costs, and bureaucratic delays that have slowed development activity across the province. “The greatest contributors to the province’s slow speed of new home construction has been the increase of development charges, the continued problem of too much red tape, and federal sales taxes,” Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) president Richard Lyall tells STOREYS.
Of course, high interest rates and inflation don’t help either. “For the last year and a half, the biggest barrier is the cost to build at a rate that the market can absorb,” says Justin Sherwood, senior vice president, communications and stakeholder relations for Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). “The last five years has seen a significant increase in the cost of construction from both a labour and material perspective. Construction inflation in the GTA has resulted in nearly an 80% increase in the cost to build a condominium and 98% in the cost to build a single family home since Q4 2019.”
Paired with high land values and sky-high municipal fees to build and the result is a cost structure that is out of line with the market’s ability to absorb, says Sherwood. “As a result, pre-construction sales have plummeted since mid-2022, new projects are not financially viable and starts are following a similar trajectory to sales,” he says. “This is why BILD has been advocating that governments of all levels do something to address the taxes, fees, and charges they put on new homes that adds 25% to the cost of an average new home in the GTA.”
CMHC housing outlook, housing starts data
CMHC Sees No Return to Pre-Pandemic Price Levels in Annual Housing Forecast CMHC Sees No Return to Pre-Pandemic Price Levels in Annual Housing Forecast
The Provincial Government’s Tough Target
To achieve its ambitious goal, Ford’s government has set housing targets for the province’s 50 largest municipalities. They’ve also established a $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund to incentivize municipalities to meet these targets. Municipalities that achieve at least 80% of their annual target receive funding, with additional bonuses for those that exceed their targets.
Late last month, however, the Ford government revealed that housing starts had declined since the last budget… but still said they’d meet target goals. While the province needs at least 100,000 new homes built per year to achieve the target, their fall economic statement reveals that Ontario is not on track to make this a reality between 2024 and 2027. In fact, projected housing starts fall in each of these years. The fall economic statement revised the 2024 housing starts projection from 87,900 to 81,300. This comes significantly short of the Ontario government’s goal of 125,000 new homes in 2024, as outlined in the statement.
Despite passionate voices from opposition parties, the provincial government says it’s doing just fine in the new home-building department, thank you very much. On its website, a tracker boldly reveals the province’s housing supply progress, based on monthly housing starts and ARUs data provided by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Figures show that the Province reached 99% of its housing start target of 110,000 new homes completed in 2023 – with 109,011. Meanwhile, the province saw 89,217 starts in 2023, as well as the addition of 9,879 residential units, which includes non-residential space that is converted to residential units and residential to residential conversions.
“Ontario has achieved the highest housing starts the province has seen in over three decades,” wrote Justine Teplycky, director of communications for provincial housing minister Paul Calandra, in an email to STOREYS. “However, as a result of high interest rates caused by the federal government’s runaway tax-and-spend policies, including the federal carbon tax, homebuilders across the province face a challenging economic environment that is impacting the pace of new home construction.”
As a result, Teplycky says the government is taking proactive measures to address everything from legislation delays to filling the missing middle. “Our government is redoubling our efforts to support the building of even more homes faster by cutting red tape and streamlining approvals,” says Teplycky. “We’ve introduced a new Provincial Planning Statement to provide municipalities with greater flexibility to build more housing. We’ve introduced common sense rules to help encourage the construction of garden, laneway, and basement suites. And we’re investing over $3 billion to address what municipalities have identified as the number one obstacle to building housing, critically needed housing-enabling infrastructure.”
In true Ford government form, Teplycky says these initiatives are more impactful than proposed solutions from other political parties. “In contrast, the NDP wants to double down on inflationary spending with a $150 billion dollar scheme that proposes to build only a fraction of the homes we need, and the Liberals are proposing to copy the federal government with a retail sales tax that will make everything we buy more expensive,” says Teplycky.
A report published on November 14 from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario drove home the reality that Ontario’s new home construction wasn’t looking as promising for 2024 as it (sort of) was for 2023. According to the report, the province saw a total of 20,600 housing starts in Ontario in 2024 from April to September – a 16.9% decline from the 24,800 starts in Q3 of 2023. Most notably, the construction of single-family homes has dramatically dropped. In 2024 Q3, 77% of total housing starts were multiple dwelling units, while 23% were single detached homes. In fact, the construction of single detached homes is on track for the lowest level of annual starts since 1955.
The report cites “affordability challenges, changes in household preferences, and planning efforts aimed at increasing density” as reasons for this declining share of single-family homes. Indeed, in places like Toronto’s core, single-family homes – especially new ones – are becoming an increasingly rare sight.
The report outlines that, to meet its goal of 1.5 million homes by the end of 2031, it would require an average of 34,100 units per quarter, beginning in 2021 Q1 – and that’s not currently happening. From 2021 Q1 to 2024 Q3, Ontario has started an average of 22,900 units per quarter. “To reach the government’s target by the end of 2031, an average of 39,900 units would need to be started per quarter beginning in 2024 Q4,” reads the report. “This represents a 74% increase in the pace of units started since 2021 and about 5,500 above the highest number of starts ever recorded of 34,400 in 1973 Q3.”
Yikes.
To say this seems like a pretty challenging prospect – for housing starts to nearly double – given the current state of things, would be a vast understatement.
When it comes to the future of housing starts, a new report from RESCON isn’t exactly a hopeful one, indicating a predicted decline in housing starts in the upcoming years. Inevitably, this decrease is expected to worsen the current housing shortage throughout the province.
In Housing Market Outlooks in Ontario, RESCON’s analysis underscores the mix of factors that are negatively impacting the construction of new homes across Ontario. A relentless culprit is climbing construction costs. The report highlights that the rising cost of land and government-imposed fees, such as development charges, are the primary factors driving up housing prices. Due to these increased costs, constructing new low-rise housing, in particular, is becoming financially unviable.
This is particularly true in the infamously pricey Greater Toronto Area (GTA) region. Here, municipal fees for single-family homes have jumped $42,000 from last year to a head-shaking average of $164,920. Meanwhile, apartment fees have climbed $32,000 to $122,387. Adding insult to injury when it comes to prices, the report found that approval delays cost developers between $2,672 and $5,576 per month, depending on the municipality. This can raise the cost per unit by up to $90,000.
The report’s long-term outlook presents two scenarios, with both anticipating a continued decrease in housing starts and employment until 2025. A gradual recovery is projected between 2026 and 2028. By the end of 2028, however, conditions will not have fully recovered. As a result, housing availability is expected to remain limited, keeping prices elevated.
Ontario Lags Behind Other Provinces In The Race To Build Homes
Figures released recently from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reveal that Ontario housing starts fell significantly behind the national trend between January and October 2024. While the rest of Canada saw an average increase of 14,000 housing starts, the province initiated 13,000 fewer homes during the same period compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, a new Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI) report authored by Mike Moffat, Economist and Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at SPI, shows that Ontario has lagged behind the other provinces when it comes to new homes for quite some time now.
According to the report, data for 2024 suggests that Ontario’s homebuilding rate per capita is worsening. The province has consistently ranked in the lower half nationally over the past six years. While British Columbia had eight communities and Quebec had four in the top 20, only three Ontario communities — Pickering, Oakville, and Kitchener — reached this level. In fact, Ontario’s cities and towns accounted for 13 of the 20 lowest spots in per-capita homebuilding. These included Aurora, Brampton, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Ajax, Windsor, Burlington, Halton Hills, Sarnia, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and North Bay.
“If we can identify what jurisdictions and municipalities are doing well, then we can start to identify why they’re doing well and adopt the best practices that they’re doing,” says Moffatt. “Kitchener, for example, has done a good job in allowing for density and their official plan has been quite helpful zoning-wise when it comes to welcoming diversity of housing types.”
While every province is obviously dealing with the same aforementioned high interest rates, things like provincial differences in approval times influence the outcome. “Why can a municipality like Edmonton return an approval in six months, but it takes on average 20 months in the GTA?,” asks Sherwood. Tellingly, Alberta has seen record-breaking numbers of housing starts in the first half of the year.
It’s Everyone’s Problem
The housing supply crisis is an issue for all Ontario residents – even those who own appreciating houses with manageable mortgage payments. “Housing affordability is at an unprecedented level which is having a broader impact on the economy and lowering quality of life for many,” says Lyall.
In his report, Moffat outlines the consequences of six years of slow growth on the homebuilding front. In no uncertain terms, he highlights how Ontario’s inability to build new housing has resulted in record-low vacancy rates, sky-high rents, record food bank use, and an unofficial estimate of 234,000 Ontario residents experiencing homelessness.
“Today’s housing starts are the housing supply of tomorrow,” says Sherwood. “If ‘starts’ are the lowest level now since 1955, then over the next few years the new supply coming to the market will be the lowest level since 1955. This will mean price appreciation, when the objective of the entire exercise of expanding supply is intended to increase affordability. But this isn’t just about putting roofs over people’s heads – it’s about the socio-economic wellbeing of the economic engine of Canada. What happens when young families and workers leave the region in pursuit of housing choices and prices they can afford?”
The SPI report highlights how inadequate housing has contributed to a “brain drain” in Ontario. Over the past four years, the province has seen a net outflow of over 100,000 people to other provinces, says Moffat. This migration pattern suggests that a significant number of educated and professional individuals are leaving Ontario in favour of better housing options and improved living conditions (and, perhaps, remote work culture).
Recent record-breaking immigration won’t fill all the holes, either. “It’s a question of who is leaving, and we are losing a lot of talented young people just starting out their careers,” says Moffatt. “It doesn’t help out society if people go to school here but realize that they can’t afford to live here and move out to Edmonton, where wages are the same and home prices are half as much. We desperately need these people – the ones most likely to leave – in our province.” Our cities only work if we have a robust middle class, says Moffatt. “We need to have nurses, teachers, doctors, and electricians live within the city,” he says. “There’s no point being an aging person in the city if you can’t find a personal support worker or all of the services you need.”
As for the fortunate set who already own their homes, they should care too. “On one hand, I live in a single-family, detached home, so some may think people like me benefit from housing scarcity and high prices,” says Moffatt. “But, I want my daughter to also be able to afford a home and she won’t be able to do that if housing is scarce. You may like housing scarcity as a homeowner, but you’d probably like to have a teacher at your kids’ school and nurses in the hospital. So, we can’t price the middle class out of our cities.”
Furthermore, as highlighted in RESCON’s report, employment in new residential construction has peaked and will likely fall further in the years ahead. The slowing construction of new homes could lead to widespread job losses both in the housing sector and industries linked to construction.
What needs to be done? Clearly, something. Experts agree that it comes down to cutting development charges, speeding up the permitting process, zoning reform, and better land use planning to accommodate our growing population.
“With a critical need for new housing, it is imperative that all levels of government take immediate action to boost construction by lowering taxes, fees, and levies and reducing the red tape and bureaucracy which slows the industry and adds to the cost of housing,” says Lyall. “To spur the market, we need conditions that allow builders to build houses that people can afford. Otherwise, we may be in dire straits as new home construction stalls and unemployment in the industry rises.”
RESCON’s report states that for new home sales to rebound, affordability must be restored to previous levels. This can be achieved through a combination of lower interest rates and reductions in government-imposed costs and land prices. However, both scenarios are unlikely. The report also highlights other challenges that need to be addressed, including delays in land use approvals and infrastructure development, the limited availability of developable land for builders, and stricter mortgage regulations that have reduced the borrowing capacity of buyers.
“If we lower fees, we can lower costs, more people can afford to purchase pre-construction, we get more housing starts and we increase supply,” says Sherwood.
Lyall tells STOREYS new actions could have a positive impact. “For example, the recent plan floated by the federal Conservatives to remove the sales taxes on new housing sold for under $1 million, the recent announcement that Vaughan would dramatically cut its development charges back to 2018 levels, and new efforts by the Province to further reduce red tape could all help,” he says.
The City of Toronto recently passed a package of measures to offset the cost to build crisis by reducing development costs and property taxes for a defined period — but Lyall and Sherwood say it falls short.
“This package recognized the problem, but defined the solution so narrowly that only a handful of projects could qualify – specifically the city’s own Housing Now projects,” says Sherwood. “If those projects were finding it challenging to proceed, on city donated lands with federal financial support, is it no wonder that market-rate projects for the average resident are struggling. While BILD applauds the City for taking a small step forward, we are calling for a much more comprehensive package to jump-start the estimated 30,000 stalled units in the City of Toronto alone. Addressing stalled out residential construction requires a package that delivers development charge and property tax relief for stalled purpose built rental projects and development charge relief for stalled condo projects.”
If immediate action isn’t taken, the grim reality is that we will have a serious shortage on our hands, with the crisis worsening, in the near future. There is room for optimism, however. “We have a dynamic, vibrant, and innovative homegrown residential construction sector in the GTA,” says Sherwood. “They have literally built the communities, towns, and cities of where we all live and work, and many local home builders are now some of the largest home builders across North America, building across Canada and the United States. In the right environment, with the right supportive policy framework today’s challenges are solvable and our industry can deliver.”
The only thing media has going for it – is that the readers trust what you are saying.
We are the guy on the left.
Now that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used – how does a reader know that a real live person wrote the article?
The Gazette does not use Artificial Intelligence when creating content. Two reasons why: We think our readers expect us to do the work that is needed to create the news and comments we deliver. The other reason is – we don’t know how to use the stuff and don’t have the time to figure it out
With the position that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot generate authentically Canadian content, the Writers Guild of Canada put AI to the test to see what ‘improvements’ AI could make to some of Canada’s most iconic film and television lines.
Given the simple instructions to ‘improve this line,’ or ‘word this line differently to have the same meaning but be more entertaining,’ ChatGPT was given a host of iconic Canadian lines from film and tv, with the following (bad) results:
AI doesn’t speak Canadian – wonder how it would handle Eh!
A once great newspaper gets sold to a wealthy businessman who keeps the presses running.
That is until his financial interests are threatened.
Jeff Bezos bought the Post for $250 million in 2013.
To Jeff Bezos, the Post was a toy, it gave him some entrance, not that he needed it.
For the most part, he kept his hands off the day-to-day operations, and kept an eye on how much he had to inject into the newspaper to keep it alive.
To Jeff Bezos, the Post was a toy, it gave him some entrance, not that he needed it.
Besides owning Amazon he had a number of high-tech interests, the biggest being Blue Origin, a private aerospace company that provides sub-orbital spaceflight services.
This is where the big, really big dollars were.
There is hardly a household on the continent that isn’t impacted by his financial interests.
It is reported that sometime this year, when Bezos was discussing Blue Origin contracts with federal-level bureaucrats, mention was made of a problem. ‘You have a Washington Post problem’ was the way it is reported to have been put to Bezos.
Traditionally American newspapers have endorsed candidates. The Post had an endorsement they intended to publish last week.
Bezos instructed senior editorial management not to publish an endorsement.
Executives from his aerospace company met with Donald Trump on the same day the newspaper prevented its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of his opponent in the US presidential election.
More than 250,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions; reported to be 20% of their circulation.
Peanuts to Bezos; another death knell to the newspaper publishing industry and another hammering of newspaper credibility.
Democracy dies in Darkness
The reports, editors and columnists all huffed and puffed but most were at their desks the next day.
What if the people who write the news and those who operate the presses banded together and published the newspaper? Make it a 16-page edition with nothing but the masthead on the front page. The rest would be blank – except for the advertising. Circulation for that day would have soared.
What a statement.
Jeff Bezos
Would Bezos have shut the paper down – would it have mattered if he did?
The Washington Post is dead – the credibility it had is gone – and in the process, they took another chunk out of the industry’s hide.
What will Jeff Bezos do should Kamala Harris become the next President of the United States?
The Post has a motto: Democracy dies in Darkness; indeed it does.
Salt with Pepper is an opinion column reflecting the observations and musings of the publisher of the Gazette, an on-line newspaper that is in its 12th year as a news source in Burlington and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
This is the third of a series on the changes taking place in print media and the challenge of keeping the public informed.
What is working well in the new media environment?
With next to nothing available in the way of printed newspapers in the vast majority of communities in Canada we began to see the emergence of online newspapers.
At this point the following are the daily newspapers in Canada: Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal , Globe & Mail , Halifax Daily News , Montreal Gazette, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star , Vancouver Sun. The Halifax newspaper market is in a state of flux.
Small independent newspapers found they could no longer survive – the cost of printing a paper was something that couldn’t be covered with what there was in the way of advertising revenue.
Once a stable of 70 weekly newspapers.
The Metroland Media Group had a stable of 70 weekly newspapers, one of which was the Burlington Post – at one time they published twice a week. In September of 2023 they abruptly shut down the papers and worked their way to becoming online newspapers. Metroland was a subsidiary of the Toronto Star that was seeking creditor protection at the time.
The Burlington Gazette was the first online newspaper that was admitted into membership in what was then the Ontario Press Council – that was in 2012.
Since then there are perhaps as many as 500 on line newspapers.
Online costs were lower which meant advertising prices could be lower.
However, publishers found that many of the retailers in the small markets didn’t understand digital – they didn’t have a clue as to how they could take advantage of the immediacy of an online paper.
The online publishers had to find ways to educate their potential advertisers and teach them the benefits of being online. Their editorial teams also had to learn how to work with a 24/7 news cycle.
Classified advertising was gone and national advertising had no place to go.
By national advertising, we mean advertising done by the auto section that looks for full page full colour advertising that used to run in every city across the country. Banks and insurance plus major brands were huge national advertisers.
What we began to see was the emergence of corporations that had online papers in many communities – the biggest example at this point is Village Media that has dozens of on line newspapers.
Village Media – a collection of online newspapers that exists coast to coast.
Village Media owns and operates local news sites in a number of markets and provides technology, consulting and fulfillment services to strategic news media partners. Together, they work as a collaborative partner network, with shared technology, ideas, content and advertising potential.
They also have an online broadcast that has a paywall.
They are funded by their advertising base.
The Narwhal – a not for profit that has led the way in showing what online media can do when they joint venture with major daily newspapers.
Another example of the new approach is The Narwhal – a not for profit that was able to secure funding from three different foundations to get started. They have a loyal following that donates on a regular basis.
What has made The Narwhal the success it is, was joining forces with the Toronto Star and now the Guardian, a British newspaper that went on line in 1999.
The Guardian has since established office in Washington DC and is proving to be a strong online competitor to the New York Times and the Washington Post. By March of 2001 the online Guardian has 2.4 million unique readers.
In the joint ventures with Toronto Star and the Guardian, the Narwhal editorial people would do the on the ground investigative work with editorial input and guidance from the larger media which would then publish the articles.
We believe that the larger media provided financial as well as editorial support.
The editorial leadership at The Narwhal is for the most part female – a welcome change in the way newsrooms were once male dominated.
The Narwhal’s leadership is female – not all but most of the leadership is female. Newspapers have in the past been a male dominated business. That has changed – for the better.
They are relentless with their drive to get subscribers that donate on a regular basis.
There is another small group Compass Newspapers. They developed a curated news application designed to deliver trending news. The company’s curated news application is for millennials, powered by an AI editor, and is able to choose the global politics, current affairs, business, finance, technology, and entertainment news published every day.
The use of Alternative Intelligence allows Compass to summarize and analyze their content giving their readers the latest news instantly.
This isn’t reporting – this is collecting what others have reported and packaging it based on the profile of their users. What surprised me was the support iPolitics gives them.
For online newspapers the focus was getting the news out in a 24/7 environment; accounting and administrative stuff got a lick and a promise.
The federal government has worked hard with media organizations to force Meta and Facebook to put some of their revenue into a fund that is distributed to media that meet the criteria; one of which submitting a corporate tax returns to Canada Revenue Agency. Many of the smaller online operations haven’t grown to the point where they can file a tax returns – their accounting system is a collection of receipts in a show box.
The Halifax Examiner, an on line paper is a subscription based operation. You pay a monthly fee ($12.50 a month) and you can read everything. They are doing very well.
We are seeing some consolidation of community based online newspapers – Village Media is one example. There are foundation supported online newspapers. The philanthropic sector is being approached by many for ongoing financial support
Second of a series on the changes taking place in print media and the challenge keeping the public informed.
In the period leading up to 2000 media found itself facing realty difficult times.
When Y2k (remember that event) was upon us no one really knew what was going to happen when we moved into the new millennium.
Newspapers were selling their printing presses and contracting the work out.
Media covered the event like a wet blanket – there were those that said it wasn’t really a problem while others suggested the machines that drive production would come to an immediate halt.
Media did a lot of reporting – but they didn’t pause to ask: what does this mean to us as an industry?
I don’t recall reading about any industry wide workshops; I don’t recall seeing anything in the way of op-ed pieces on what the industry needed to do in the way of changes.
Media covered disruption – without realizing that they were in line for some major disruption to their industry and they weren’t prepared.
The industry no longer had the aura of Watergate or the Pentagon Papers that made reporters heros – at that time thousands flooded into the industry wanting to be reporters. Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were the subject of close to fawning news stories, television specials and movies.
By the late 1980s journalism schools were being closed. The number of students that graduated got smaller and smaller.
The age of the men and woman in the news rooms was made up of people in their late 40’s and 50’s – there was no new blood coming into the industry. And there were few MBAs on staff of the large newspapers.
Those that were public corporations had financial analysts looking at profits which were decent at the time – what those analysts didn’t see was that the boat was moving quickly toward a Niagara size waterfall.
When the disruption of the revenue sources began media didn’t have a Plan B – they watched is losses began to climb and subscriptions slowly slipped away.
The data relates to American newspaper – the number will not be much different for Canada
The following was taken from a CBC broadcast of an interview with Dominic Cardy, the leader of a new federal political party – the Canadian Future Party that is pitching itself as a centrist alternative to what we now have. The interim party leader says they are looking to fill a gap Canadians are looking for
“We’ve moved away from a policy and tone of moderation and keen judgment and civility, and when I speak with Canadians, said Cardy. “People say they’d like to see more of that. So we do think that we are helping to fill a vacuum that exists.
CBC: So give me the elevator pitch. What’s the Canadian Future Party all about? And why are you launching this now?
Domenic Cardy was very active in New Brunswick.
Cardy: “We want Canada to go, not left, not right, but forward. We think it’s time for a policy politics that’s focused on being brave, being evidence based, and delivering results, because if democracy doesn’t deliver then people are going to lose faith in it.
“We’re seeing that right now with the Liberals who are trapped in the politics of the 1990s and Mr. Poilievre, who perhaps is trapped in the politics of the 1930s – we want to talk about Canada moving ahead with clear, decisive plans for dealing with some of the big challenges that bluntly, Mr. Poilievre and Mr. Trudeau are simply not being honest with Canadians about wanting defence, immigration, housing and so on.
CBC: “I want to get to Mr. Poilievre in a second. Let’s give you a chance to kind of spell out what you’re all about. As you know, with the established party brands, people kind of have a vague idea of what they’re going to get right. With the Liberals, you’re going to get socially progressive, a bigger government. The Conservatives kind of anti-tax, tough on crime, smaller government. The Green Party, obviously, quite self-explanatory. What are some of the key foundational principles of the Canadian Future Party. What is your brand?
Cardy: “So we line up with the 70% or so of Canadians who say they see themselves in the middle and have concerns about the slide of the liberal and conservative parties towards the extremes. So we’re a party that is liberal on social questions and responsible when it comes to fiscal issues, because if we don’t have a government that delivers results, which means it has to be well run.
“People lose faith in it. And when people lose faith in their government, they look for alternatives. And I think one of the best ways to sum it up is, let’s look at the immigration crisis. Mr. Trudeau team created a political crisis by seizing political control of the temporary foreign workers and student visa programs. The other parts of the immigration system continue to work just fine. The crisis has come because the Liberals ignored the gatekeepers.
Cardy: “We believe in expertise…”
“So when Mr. Poilievre talks about getting rid of gatekeepers, we’re talking about duplicating triplicating, quadruplicating, the sort of crisis we’ve seen in immigration. We believe in expertise, but we believe that the experts have to show again that they can deliver, and we haven’t done a good job in the political elite of doing that over the last number of years.
“If we can’t get back to a government that actually shows results for Canadian citizens, we’re going to see that slide towards populism, which is exactly what Mr. Poilievre is taking advantage of. But at the same time, there’s a lot of people who don’t feel comfortable with his slide towards extremism and want to see a change from Mr. Trudeau, and we’re there to offer a sensible, evidence based solutions, set of solutions that we hope will attract attention from Canadians, and we’ll get to work on pushing that starting today.
CBC: “You’re a former provincial Progressive Conservative. The party’s interim president Tara McPhail says she’s a former conservative as well. Is this movement that you’re creating that you’re launching today? Is it a direct backlash against sort of the right wing, more populist style that Pierre Poilievre has adopted? You mentioned, you said it’s from the 1930s – maybe elaborate on that, and maybe speak to what his role was really in the formation of this party.
Cardy: “It’s not just Mr. Pollievre, and it’s not just the Conservative Party, it’s our politics writ large. The Liberal party is falling into the same trap, the falling into social media driven, algorithm driven extremism, appealing to people who are further and further away from the mainstream, further and further away from offering concrete solutions to real problems.
“ I don’t want to hear any more apologies for things that Canada has done wrong in the past. I want to see solutions to what’s wrong with Canada now. Mr. Poilievre spends his time talking about Canada being broken. Canada is a fantastic country. We’re not broken. There’s no end to what we can do. But we have people who’ve come to join the new party who are former members of Stephen Harper’s cabinet, former members of Jack Layton’s team: elected folks who are sitting in the House of Commons, former Liberal organizers, Greens, New Democrats, people from across the political spectrum who are all united: there’s something seriously wrong with our politics, that this approach of just using social media and leaders offices to run political parties divorced from MPS being given any real power to express their opinions and vote the way they feel they should in the House of Commons.
I was a Cabinet Minister in New Brunswick from 2018 to 2020.
“This is a problem that all the parties share, and it’s one where to use that example. We’re proposing a concrete change. Canada copied the British parliamentary system when we built this country. One thing we didn’t copy was the caucus system that allows back bench MPs in the UK to vote against their leaders if the Leader’s office can’t convince them to support them. In Canada, we treat our MPs like sheep. They just vote yay, yay, yay, nay, nay, nay, depending on what the leader says, there’s no reason we can’t change that. That takes will from political party leaders, and that’s what we’re here to say we’re going to do. And I have a record on this, that 2018 to 20 in New Brunswick, when I was a cabinet minister, I helped write the platform in 2018 we ran the government that way through the early stage of covid, creating an all party committee we got like a war cabinet to help manage the province during that crisis. That’s exactly the sort of creative approach we want to see brought to other crises facing Canada.
CBC: “We asked Poilievre spokesperson about your party, and this is what he told us, he said, quote, We are not paying much attention to what the former NDP leader says, and neither are Canadians. So obviously he’s referencing your past as NDP in New Brunswick, you were the leader of that party. Provincially. What do you say to them? It seems like they’re quite dismissive of you and your effort.
Cardy: “What we have seen, which you’ve probably noticed over the last couple of weeks, Mr. Poilievre claiming that his party is the centrist party. Tory influencers online trying to pass that same message. They see the same polls we do. They know that there’s a lot of Canadians, a majority of Canadians, who want to see a change, who are tired of Mr. Trudeau over promising and under delivering, but at the same time are really concerned about Mr. Pollievre’s drift towards populist extremism. So we’re here to offer an alternative to that. And so of course, they’re going to say insulting things. You know, of the other things we’re not going to do, get into that sort of gutter pop sort of gutter politics, we want to focus on what we’re going to do differently. Sure, we’ll be sharp when we have to be, but things like that are exactly why we need to change.
Cardy: “I’d say it’s extremely dangerous.”
CBC: “You say populist extremism, but it seems to have an appeal, right? I mean, he’s leading over the Liberals by 20 points in the polls. He’s at 43 points. You know, if we’re to believe the aggregators, that’s a huge lead. He’s poised to form a massive majority government if election were held today. So that seems to have a lot of appeal among people, right? I mean, there might be, you might quibble with his tone and tenor, but it’s certainly resonating.
Cardy: “Well, first, wouldn’t quibble with it. I’d say it’s extremely dangerous. And one of the things I think we’ve got to listen to is the voices around the world who’ve had their experiences with radical, populist governments on the left and the right in recent years is how dangerous they are, how they don’t make life better for people. So putting that aside, absolutely, he’s doing well, because right now his party is the only one that’s seen as an alternative to Mr. Trudeau. The NDP have hooked themselves, possibly permanently to the Liberals, certainly for the next election, they’re going to be judged on the same criteria that Mr. Trudeau team will be. The Greens, I think, have broadly succeeded to convince Canadians that climate change is real. Certainly, that’s not something we’re going to waste time on. In the Canadian future party, we believe climate change is real, then you’ve got Mr. Bernier party, who are just grumpy that they’ve been out ring out right wing extremists by Mr. Poilievre.
CBC: ” You mentioned the Green Party, as you know, in our first past the post system, it’s really tough for smaller parties to actually win a seat. It took the Green Party 30 years from their foundation to when they actually won a seat with Elizabeth May. What makes the Canadian future party different? How can you actually win a seat in a system that really does not advantage upstart parties like yours.
Cardy: “First that’s absolutely the case. We recognize the challenge we’re facing, and we’re only embarking on this project the people around me, who, again, come from all parties and none, who recognize the crisis Canada is facing. The reason why we’re doing this is because we want to offer Canadians that alternative, and Canadians have a choice going into the next election about whether they like that or not. Our job is to present a positive, well thought out platform and a team of candidates who could manage Canada.
CBC: “You mentioned candidates you’ve you’ve named at least one for the upcoming federal by election in Quebec and La Salle Marg you will name one in Manitoba as well. What is success look like? What are you expecting to see in those by elections?
Cardy: “We’re going to be there with a team as new and fresh a party. It’s up to Canadians to decide.”
Cardy: “In those by elections, we want to get our name out there and start to share our vision for Canadian Canadian politics longer term, our goal is to try and win as many seats as possible. I’ve never understood some folks in politics is how we’re just here to try and influence the other guys. In my time in the NDP, that was often a problem. So we want to try and win, but what we really want to try and do is change Canadian politics. I don’t care about party labels. If the liberals or Tories take all of our platform ideas and start recruiting people who believe in those same sort of mainstream, moderate values that most Canadians share. All power to them. If they don’t, we’re going to be there with a team as new and fresh a party as we might be to offer them that alternative, and we’ll see whether or not that catches fire. It’s up to Canadians to decide. That’s democracy.
CBC: “All right, let’s leave it there. Dominic Cardy is the interim leader of the Canadian Future party.
Deeper dive on Dominic Cardy
Dominic William CardyMLA (born 25 July 1970) is a Canadian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick. From the 2018 New Brunswick general election until his expulsion from the caucus in October 2022, Cardy represented the electoral district of Fredericton West-Hanwell for the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick. He now sits as an independent. During his time in government he was the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development under Blaine Higgs. Since September 2023, Cardy has been the interim leader of the Canadian Future Party, a newly-formed moderate centrist federal political party. Prior to being elected to the New Brunswick legislature, Cardy served as chief of staff of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick caucus and had previously been leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party from 2011 to 2017.
Cardy resigned as party leader, as well as resigning his membership of both the federal and New Brunswick NDP, on 1 January 2017, complaining of party infighting which he attributed to “destructive forces” colluding with CUPE New Brunswick, the province’s largest public-sector union against his leadership. Cardy said that he “cannot lead a party where a tiny minority of well-connected members refuse to accept the democratic will of the membership.” He added that “[l]imited time and energy is being wasted on infighting before the election,” and that “‘Some New Democrats unfortunately believe change and openness have had their time. They want to return to an old NDP of true believers, ideological litmus tests and moral victories.”[ Cardy claimed that what he described as his “progressive” platform had been thwarted by both federal and provincial party members and denounced the federal party’s non-interventionist stance on the Syrian Civil War as antithetical to his beliefs.
Cardy’s appointment as strategic issues director for the opposition Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick was announced by party leader Blaine Higgs on 27 January 2017. Cardy said it is “not my intention” to run for a legislative seat as a Progressive Conservative candidate but that a “great many” of his former colleagues in the NDP would be joining the Progressive Conservatives.
In April 2017, Cardy was promoted to the position of chief of staff to the official opposition New Brunswick Progressive Conservative caucus. Later that month he endorsed Maxime Bernier for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Cardy was elected in the 2018 provincial election as the PC candidate in Fredericton West-Hanwell. He had run unsuccessfully in 2014 in the same riding as a New Democrat.
Cardy was re-elected in the 2020 provincial election.
Cardy was appointed as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development on 9 November 2018.Minister Cardy spearheaded a plan to remove the Confucius Institute from all New Brunswick schools. While the educational programs for elementary and middle schools were removed for the 2019–2020 school year, high school programs will not be removed until 2022.Cardy resigned from his position as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Education on October 13, 2022. Announcing his resignation on Twitter, Cardy explained that “At some point, working style and values have to matter.” His resignation letter offered a more detailed explanation, citing Premier Higgs’ behaviour in a series of incidents. Cardy initially committed to staying on as a Progressive Conservative but was expelled from caucus a day after resigning as minister. He was replaced as minister by Bill Hogan.Cardy remained in the legislature as an independent MLA for the rest of his term, while announcing he would not be running as a candidate in the 2024 New Brunswick general election.Cardy said he would be voting for Susan Holt and the New Brunswick Liberal Party in the upcoming election in June 2024. On September 20, 2023, Cardy announced that he was in the process of founding a new federal political party, named the Canadian Future Party to occupy the middle ground between the Justin Trudeau-led Liberal Party of Canada and the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservative Party of Canada. Prior to its launch as a party, the group had been known first as “Centre Ice Conservatives” and then as “Centre Ice Canadians.” On July 22, 2024, Elections Canada recognized the Canadian Future Party as eligible for registration, pending it standing a candidate for election.In July 2024, Cardy was arrested in Toronto for disturbing the peace after engaging in a confrontation at a pro-Palestine protest. According to Cardy, he chanted “Free Palestine from Hamas”. Authorities stated that Cardy “behaved in a confrontational manner towards other protesters and did not follow police directions” to leave the area. He was released without charges.
HELP US SUPPORT HUNDREDS OF CHARITIES, A TOONIE AT A TIME is the way the Burlington Rotary explained the $2 Entrance Fee being collected at the 2024 Ribfest.
“As you may know, Canada’s Largest RibFest is Rotary Burlington Lakeshore’s most successful community event where all proceeds are donated to support health, hunger and humanity across charities close to home and around the world. In the last 25 years, we have been able to donate close to 5 MILLION dollars to charities such as Burlington Food Bank, Joseph Brant Hospital, The Carpenter Hospice, Canada Diabetes Association Summer Camp, CCAC Child Abuse Emergency Fund, Terry Fox, Food Banks Canada, Haloton (sic)Fresh Food Box, Community Living Burlington, Out of the Cold, The Lighthouse Homeless Shelter, Able Sail and many more.
“We couldn’t do this without all of the amazing support we receive from the community and thank you in advance for a record-breaking Rib Fest this year!”
Did Rotary clear this with the City administration – Spencer Smith is a public park – I don’t think anyone can just say I’m collecting money for a good cause..
We don’t recall hearing anything from Rotary about this new approach to collecting money from the public. It looks like people within Rotary thought it was a good idea and they just went right ahead and did it.
Nothing wrong with the idea – getting public support before is usually seen as a best practice.
Given the close to crisis situation every dollar should be going to the Food Banks.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
Attracting people to your cultural event is not easy.
Social media is great – providing you know how to use it to your advantage.
There are people who can help.
Registration link is show below.
Culture Days Ontario wants you to take part in their Culture Days event. Tune in on Thursday, August 29th, at 2pm ET. And learn the marketing and media tips you need to get your audiences to take notice and action during Culture Days.
Media expert Mercedes Blackwood will share practical tips on planning and running marketing campaigns. As well as how to work with the Media to help gain widespread reach for your arts and culture events.
We will also be joined by Ontario Culture Days’ Partnerships & Programs Manager, Kaitlyn Patience. She will share tips on connecting with and involving your local community, partners, and collaborators in your event promotion efforts!
Join us to learn more about how to use the free Culture Days marketing tools, templates and resources available to help you:
Increase attendance to your events.
Increase awareness of your organization, group, business, or artistic practice.
Create lasting audience connections and build year-round engagement.
This session will be presented in English with English captions available. A recording with French captions will be available shortly after the event. If you have specific questions or requests you would like addressed, please email us at info@culturedays.ca
Be the first to know; stay connected with your regional offices for updates, opportunities, and all-things Culture Days:
Burlington and surrounding areas have received a large amount of rain since July 15. Flooding has occurred in several areas throughout the city and as a result, Burlington is now in Level 2 Enhanced Monitoring response. The City is making progress on clearing blockages, repairing/cleaning roads, boulevards, and tree debris removals. City staff and contractors will be out cleaning up and clearing debris over the next several days or weeks.
Updated reports indicate that on July 15, approximately 65mm of rain fell in three hours with more rain coming later. Work is ongoing to confirm the total precipitation.
Residents who need power, shower facilities or a comfortable place to go can come to any City recreation facility during normal business hours.
The City is working very closely with community partners including Burlington Hydro, Halton Region, Halton Regional Police Services, Enbridge Gas and the Ministry of Transportation.
Please continue to use caution when travelling around the city. Avoid all waterways such as ponds, creeks, streams and culverts.
Do not drive or walk on flooded roads.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.
If you have flooding on private property, please call 3-1-1 for Halton Region response.
If there is flooding on roads or public property, please call Service Burlington at 905-335-7777 or city@burlington.ca.
Residents are encouraged to subscribe to news alerts for extreme weather alerts, road closures and more at burlington.ca/subscribe and follow the City’s social media channels for the latest updates.
Current Road Closures
Flatt Road from #266 to the west terminus
Unsworth Avenue from Garden View to Sandcherry Drive
Cavendish Drive, 100m east of Weybridge Court
Road closure updates will be posted on social media as well as through the newsfeed at burlington.ca/roadclosures.
Cavendish Drive
Cavendish Drive is experiencing significant flooding due to a blocked inlet and partially failed berm located on Highway 407 ETR property. 407 ETR staff are on site responding, and City staff have been in ongoing communication with 407 ETR, and the Ministry of Transportation, and are prepared to address any issues on City property.
First responders have recommended that those with flooded basements find alternate accommodations until the floodwaters recede. Information on short-term support has been provided.
Special Council Meeting
A special Council Meeting has been scheduled for Friday, July 19 at 9:30 a.m. A verbal update will be provided to council on the current situation, actions taken, next steps and resourcing.
Residents can come to the meeting at 426 Brant St. or can stream the meeting at burlington.ca/calendar.
Burlington is a city where people, nature and business thrive. Sign up to learn more about Burlington at burlington.ca/subscribe and follow @CityBurlington on social media.
Infrastructure Investments
Since 2014 the City of Burlington has invested $20M in stormwater infrastructure which has made a difference in our ability to handle storm water and reduce flooding. The City is committed to asset and infrastructure management, consistently increasing our investment in these areas to mitigate the impact of severe storms and flooding.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said: “We understand the concerns and uncertainties following this week’s flooding events. As someone personally affected by the flooding, I empathize deeply with the distress caused. City staff and all members of Council are continuing to work with the community to get answers to questions and provide supports as quickly as possible. We will reconvene on Friday, July 19 at a Special Council Meeting to discuss path forward and provide updates to the community. We are fully committed to addressing this emergency and ensuring the safety and well-being of our community.”
Councillor Stolte, along with Kearns and Sharman fully understood the gravity of the flooding.
Stolte on the CURRENT STATE-July 17th, 2024 at 9:00 am
The Gazette received the email just after 2:00 pm.
The city activated the Emergency and Continuity Management team to address the flooding.
On Monday, July 15 and Tuesday, July 16, several rounds of extensive rain and thunderstorms resulted in flash flooding occurring in multiple locations across the region. Initial data suggests approximately 70 mm of rain fell on Monday, July 15, 2024 with the majority falling in isolated areas of the City of Burlington and Town of Oakville.
WHAT CAN RESIDENTS DO?
Residents should call Halton Region. They are continuing to update website and social media to provide the information. If you are experiencing basement flooding, the following are the key messages and steps to take:
1. Take immediate safety precautions
If you or someone is in immediate danger, please call 911.
Keep children and pets out of the affected area until cleanup has been completed.
If water has risen above electrical outlets or water is near electrical panels, consider shutting off your hydro. Contact your local hydro company and/or an electrician, if necessary. Note: This would affect the operation of a sump pump or sewage ejector.
If you detect gas, leave the house immediately and contact your gas provider. Water can extinguish a pilot light on a gas appliance, but gas may continue to run.
Do not use toilets or sinks until the source of the backup is known. This will help prevent more wastewater from entering your home.
Do not consume potentially contaminated food.
2. Contact Halton Region at 311 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) or email accesshalton@halton.ca, regardless of the source of blockage.
Halton Region Public Works staff are working as quickly as possible to review the property history, discuss the situation with the property owner, and continue follow-up as required.
3. Contact your insurance provider to report damage and take pictures. Depending on the terms of the insurance policy, the insurer may:
-assign an adjuster to visit the impacted home to take additional pictures and handle the claim
-recommend a vendor who will conduct the emergency services and repairs
Please direct residents to our Taking Action – Wastewater (Sewage) Backups in Homes webpage for additional information, including how to safely clean and/or dispose of items and information regarding Halton Region’s ex-gratia grant. We are also keeping our channels updated with the latest information.
Once the current situation is resolved, we will be promoting prevention measures and our Enhanced Basement Flooding Prevention Subsidy Program to the community. This program makes it easier and more affordable for property owners to undertake improvements that can help reduce the risk of flooding.
WHAT IS THE CITY DOING?
The City’s Emergency and Continuity Management team was activated on July 15th. They continue to monitor the storm prediction centre and rainfall.
The city will continue to work with the Region on the matter and further discussion will occur.
The city’s Engineering Services team is sending out have inspection teams to take photos to track high water levels and damage. Design and Construction – Parks staff will be inspecting construction sites and parks to assess damage and repair damage as needed.
Roads Design and Construction – staff will also be assessing impacts and will be doing reporting on high water levels and damage assessment. Tyandaga Park was mentioned as having a lot of material has been moved from road construction sites.
Council has requested an update from staff on actions being taken. A special Council meeting was scheduled for Friday July 19th at 9:30am to get a status update on the City’s emergency response, and next steps. The live stream will be available at events.burlington.ca/meetings
ROAD CLOSURES?
Please be advised of the below road closures in effect due to localized flooding and extreme weather:
Flatt Road – # 266 to the end of the road
Unsworth Drive between Sandcherry Drive and Gardenview Drive
Cavendish Drive between # 2043 and # 2061
Ministry staff/City staff are working with Highway 407 property as it is has caused an overland flooding issue
Roads staff are doing street sweeping and cleaning throughout the city.
Guelph Line North of Dundas experienced a shoulder washout.
The detail in this article is not correct. An org chart was released by the city earlier today that sets out the structure more clearly. We will revise thus article once we get more information from the Communications people at City Hall.
City hall has released a new corporate structure
New corporate structure changes the title of Executive Director to Commissioner. The title Director will remain.
Nine divisions have been created with a list of all the departments that will be in a Division. The responsibilities are also set out in detail.
There are no new positions created at the Commissioner level.
Pay-bands for these roles remain within the City’s established compensation framework – this has not changed.
The Head of Corporate Affairs is a senior administrative role that will oversee Communications & Engagement, Government Relations, and Audit – areas which were spread across multiple departments in the previous organizational structure.
Burlington’s leadership team remains at headcount neutral, meaning all roles are repurposed from existing positions, including retirements and other vacancies.
The compensation quoted in these postings is comparable to other senior executive roles on the market today. Our non-union compensation system is aligned to the 65th percentile of the market for comparable municipalities. This ensures we continue to attract and retain talented staff.
Hassaan Basit, Chief Administrative Officer
Chief Administrative Officer
The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is responsible for providing corporate leadership for the general management of the corporation as well as participating in the overall stewardship of the municipality. The CAO reports directly to Council and oversees the following City departments and divisions.
There are nine Divisions in the City of Burlington Corporate structure
Burlington Digital Services Division
Burlington Digital Services
Responsible for internal technical support, including:
Business application management and support
Desktop hardware and software support
Security
Training and general consulting
Burlington Digital Services also manages the City’s:
Data centres
Email
Internet access
Network
Telephone systems
Community Services Division
Customer Experience
Responsible for:
Unifying City’s customer service initiatives.
Improving and transforming our customers’ overall experience at the City.
Fire
Responsible for:
Fire prevention education
Fire safety inspections
The prevention and suppression of fires
Emergency and rescue services
Recreation, Community and Culture
Responsible for all matters relating to:
Parks and facilities
Recreation and culture services
Transit
Responsible for managing:
Transit route network including scheduling, operations and maintenance of transit vehicles.
Handi-Van paratransit system
Corporate Affairs Division
Communications and Engagement
Responsible for our brand and reputation management. Their roles include:
Developing and implementing public engagement programs
Developing a variety of communications materials, including print, web, video and social media
Media relations
Government Relations
Responsible for:
Providing advocacy and advice for the City of Burlington’s relations with all levels of government.
Developing relationships and seeking funding with key government stakeholders to advance the city’s strategic priorities.
Internal Audit
The City Auditor is independent of the City of Burlington administration and reports directly to City Council through the Audit Committee, ensuring its work is completed freely and objectively.
Audits typically answer questions around:
Efficiency and effectiveness of city operations and program delivery
Safeguarding of assets
Integrity and reliability of financial and operational information
Compliance with laws and regulations
Development and Growth Management Division
Building
Responsible for:
Building code information
Building inspections
Business licensing
Building, plumbing, heating, swimming pool, septic system and sign permits
Burlington Land Partnerships
Responsible for:
Addressing multiple areas of municipal strategic land management including acquisition and development.
Achieving tangible and measurable community benefits and returns in three areas: supporting economic growth and direct job creation, completing “city building” projects and delivering much needed affordable housing.
By-Law Compliance
Responsible for:
By-law enforcement
Including by-law complaints and investigations
Community Planning
Responsible for:
Niagara Escarpment Commission applications
Our Official Plan and other planning policies that provide guidance for City development
Parkway belt applications
Rezoning applications
Site plan applications
Subdivision and condominium applications
Finance Division
Finance
Responsible for financial and accounting management including:
Budgets
Collecting taxes and other revenues
Financial reporting
Tax certificates and assessment review
Tenders and general purchasing
Human Resources Division
Human Resources
Responsible for:
Attracting and retaining City employees
Employee benefits
Employee health and safety
Pay research
Staff and labour relations
Staff training and development
Legal and Legislative Services Division
Legal Services and Halton Court Services
Responsible for:
Negotiating development and subdivision agreements
Preparing business contracts
Representing the City before the Ontario Municipal Board and courts
Legislative Services
Responsible for:
Assessment rolls and bylaws
Maintaining corporate records
Conducting municipal elections
Providing commissioner of oath services
Providing support for Council and Committees
Public Works Division
Engineering Services
Responsible for managing:
Coordination of corporate initiatives to green city operations
Designing and construction of all roads, sidewalks, parks, open spaces, bridges and sewers
Environmental issues
Geomatics
Infrastructure management and engineering reviews for subdivisions, site plans and re-zonings
Policy development
Facilities, Assets, Sustainability
Responsible for:
Design and construction of new facilities and capital renewal of existing facilities and building systems
Long-term facility asset management and capital planning
Energy management, monitoring and reporting, including the Climate Action Plan, the Corporate Energy and
Emissions Management Plan. and the Climate Resilient Burlington – A Plan for Adapting to Our Warmer Wetter and Wilder Weather
Support corporate environmental sustainability initiatives
Roads, Parks and Forestry
Responsible for the maintenance of:
Streets and sidewalks
Parks and playgrounds
Storm sewers and creeks
Snow clearing
Forestry
Cemetery operations
City signs production
Fleet services
Transportation Services
Responsible for the delivery of various road-related services. These services include:
The traffic signal system
Traffic services
Transportation planning
Parking bylaw enforcement
Downtown parking
Transformation Division
Corporate Strategy and Business Improvement
Responsible for:
Providing ongoing support and coordination of the vision, mission, values, goals and objectives in the City’s strategic planning.
Building capabilities within the organization, through leadership and support of enterprise approaches, in innovation, project management, change and continuous improvement.
Risk Management
Responsible for:
Improving the effectiveness of governance processes.
Supporting the organization in the identification, assessment, and reporting of risks to strengthen the achievement of the City’s strategic priorities.
Some stability is settling in at the Performing Arts Centre.
Ken Smithard, BPAC Board Chair,
Ken Smithard, Board Chair, said there will be an announcement “later this week on the new Board members; their Bio’s will be posted on the BPAC web site shortly.
“There will be an announcement later this week on the new Board members, and their Bio’s will be posted on the BPAC web site shortly.”
Smithhard also said “The search for a new Executive Director is underway” and confirmed that Tammy Fox tendered her resignation which was effective immediately.
Canada now has some of the biggest iGaming markets.
Recent statistics suggest that at least 19.3 million Canadians are playing real money games online. So, it’s not surprising that the country has been penetrated by various online casino operators.
That includes crypto casinos which allow players to transact with popular digital coins like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and many more.
In this article, we’ll take a look at today’s best crypto casinos in Canada and why they can be worth signing up with. If you’re looking to have some fun with your cryptocurrencies and potentially make profits, then stick around.
Why Use Cryptocurrencies When Playing Real Money Casino Games?
If you’re already a crypto holder, then you’re most likely just looking for ways to grow or enjoy your coins. However, there are advantages to using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin when playing at online casinos. Here are some of them:
Privacy and Anonymity: Let’s face it, not everyone wants their bank statement shouting, “Blackjack champ!” Crypto transactions are more discreet than traditional payment methods. This way, you can play your favorite games without worrying about nosy neighbors or judgmental family members seeing your casino activity.
Faster Transactions: Crypto transactions are usually fast and processed in just a few minutes. That’s why at crypto casinos, you can deposit funds and withdraw your winnings in a jiffy.
Little To No Fees: Tired of those pesky transaction fees eating into your winnings? Crypto transactions often come with lower fees compared to traditional methods. Most casinos don’t even charge anything for crypto transactions.
Global Accessibility: Some online casinos may be restricted in certain countries. However, using cryptocurrencies can bypass these limitations. They can give you access to a wider range of casinos and games worldwide.
Bonuses and Promotions: Some crypto casinos offer exclusive bonuses and promotions for players who use cryptocurrencies. Generally, casinos also offer better bonuses to crypto players. In the business side of things, processing crypto payments is usually cheaper, and that’s why they can afford to give crypto players better rewards.
Best New Crypto Casinos in Canada Today
A quick search on crypto casinos in Canada will give a long list of choices. To some, the more options, the better. However, we also understand that choosing one can be overwhelming. Don’t worry, we’ve got some recommendations where you can get a solid gaming experience:
10Bet – Best Crypto Casino Overall
10Bet has been in the casino industry since 2003, and they’re some of the most trusted platforms in Canada. They offer casino games from software providers like Big Time Gaming, NetEnt, and Microgaming.
That alone should tell you that they offer high quality bitcoin casino games including slot machines and table games like roulette, blackjack, and video poker.
This Canadian online casino supports cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Tether, Tron, Ripple, Dogecoin, and Litecoin.
starz – Fastest Payouts
Bitstarz is a multi-awarded online casino where you can play over 5,000 titles. They also offer exclusive games since they are a software developer themselves. But aside from Bitstarz Originals, other software providers on board are Platipus, BGaming, and Amatic.
You can use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum at this online casino. They’re some of the fastest out there when it comes to processing payouts. On average, they can complete withdrawals in 10 minutes.
Neospin – Generous Bonuses
Many online casino players would prioritize bonuses when choosing an online casino. We understand why. A bankroll boost is always great to have. It simply means longer gameplay and more chances of winning.
If you’re all about scoring the best bonuses, then go for Neospin. The casino’s welcome bonus alone is impressive since you can get up to a C$10,000 deposit bonus. Aside from that, the casino will also give you a cashback on every deposit.
Neospin supports cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Tether, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Ripple.
MyStake – Wide Variety of Betting Options
Love playing casino games but also betting on your favorite sports? MyStake can give you the best of both worlds. They offer a massive casino game library with over 5,000 titles and a competitive sports betting market.
Their live dealer section is also worth checking out since they have plenty of tables with the most charming dealers.
MyStake accepts Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and plenty of other banking options that Canadian players will find convenient.
Conclusion
No matter what crypto casino you choose, make sure you gamble responsibly. If you’ve never used cryptocurrencies before, then make sure you take the time to understand how they work, especially their volatility.
Good luck on your gaming journey and most importantly, have fun!
Earlier in the month the provincial government hosted an event called Exercise Heatwave. It was a large-scale simulated exercise which will reinforce provincial procedures and response to heat-related emergencies.
Six municipalities will participate, including Guelph, Mississauga, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Toronto, along with three federal government departments and more than 50 non-governmental organizations.
The Exercise took place between May 7 and 9.
Newly outfitted Emergency Operations Centre
To support municipalities in times of emergency, the province coordinates emergency management through the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC), which is staffed at all times and monitors evolving situations inside and outside of Ontario. To make the space more efficient and enable greater collaboration and information sharing, the PEOC was recently modernized with a new video display wall and floor layout, an upgraded audio system, ergonomic desks and chairs, a breakout room and folding walls that allow the space to be divided into three separate rooms that can be used for different functions.
The government is taking further action to ensure the province is as prepared as possible in the event of an emergency. In April, Ontario released its first annual report on the Provincial Emergency Management Strategy and Action Plan, highlighting progress made in 2023 to move emergency management forward.
Regional Police have two mobile command units; one with a broadcast aerial that will allow them to transmit from wherever they are located.
The province also recently announced the 113 recipients of the Community Emergency Preparedness Grant, a $5 million investment that is empowering communities and organizations to enhance their emergency response by helping them purchase critical emergency supplies and deliver training and services.
Last week City Council met in CLOSED session for a workshop on:
Media relations training during emergencies.
To the best of our knowledge media was not invited to take part.
The climate has changed. It is reasonable to assume that there will be heat waves that we may not be prepared for. Is the city working out now what it wants to say should there be a serious heat wave with deaths being reported?
Traditionally, City Hall has not released background information on staff changes.
Today the City announced that Samantha Yew is the new City Clerk. Her appointment began on March 25, 2024.
Samantha Yew – City Clerk
Yew has served as the Manager of Committee Services and Deputy Clerk since joining the City in 2022. In December 2023, she assumed the role of Acting City Clerk.
Ms. Yew is an accomplished public servant with more than 10 years of experience in municipal government. Prior to joining Burlington, Ms. Yew worked as the Deputy Clerk for the Town of Aurora managing the Council secretariat division.
During her tenure with the City, Ms. Yew helped lead the successful delivery of the 2022 Burlington Municipal Election and the recruitment of members to the City’s more than 10 advisory and standing committees, including the new Pipeline to Permit standing committee. As Manager of Committee Services, she oversaw the administration of all City standing and advisory committee meetings, and worked to develop a new civic recognition program launching this spring.
As City Clerk, Ms. Yew will continue to lead City Council meetings; provide professional procedural and governance advice to the Mayor and Members of Council and City staff; facilitate accessible and inclusive opportunities for members of the public to interact with Council; build awareness and understanding of municipal government through civic education; maintain City records; manage the City’s response to freedom of information requests; and ensure fair and open municipal elections.
Mayor Meed Ward leaning to hear what the City Clerk has to say on a procedural matter.
Ms. Yew holds a Bachelor of Arts from York University and a Certificate in Records and Information Management from the University of Toronto. She is also a member of the Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario.
Celebrity – some will remember when the Beattles attracted this kind of attention.
Big deal for American football fans that has become a big big deal for the Swifties in the world.
Swifties are the Taylor Swift fans – tens of millions of them
Super Bowl LVIII will feature the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers. On Sunday February 11th.
This is the second time the Chiefs and 49ers have matched up in a Super Bowl, previously meeting in Super Bowl LIV at the end of the 2019 season. Kansas City won that game,
The Swifties being the moniker for the Taylor Swift fans. What brings football and a Rock Star together is Travis Kelce, plays with the Kansas City Chiefs and is the current Swift boyfriend. Kelce a Tight End and considered to be one of the best players in that position. –
When Swift changed some pictures on her Instagram page there was an immediate jump in the readership by more than 650,000 in a single day.
When Kelce does well on the football field the Swifties in the crowd go bananas.
The people who follow this stuff expect to see millions of people gambling on the game in real time.
Taylor Swift, the woman with the largest personal audience the world has ever seen.
What does Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl mean to media?
What will this do to the numbers?
One prediction is for 200 million people watching the football game, with 140 million of them in North America – the rest spread around the world.
Olan Scott, a professor at Brock University teaches in the Faculty of Sports Management where numbers like this are part of some of the curriculum. He comments that Taylor Swift has the largest audience the world has ever seen.
What people follow media are now realizing is that while traditional newspapers are not just in decline, except for some major national newspapers there isn’t all that much left. Journalism isn’t a career choice the way it was in the Watergate days.
Politically the Americans are split between a close to rabid core that believes a presidential candidate had the last election stolen from him. That candidate has so many court cases in which he is defending himself against a possible prison sentence.
At a time when balanced news is essential there are organizations offering news that is intended to mislead.
We now have the Chinese and the Russians actively sowing seeds of discontent and totally false news to a public that has yet to learn to differentiate and question what is being published. The scope of what is taking place could put the western world as we know it at serious risk – democracy itself is at risk.
Olan Scott, a former Australian surfer earned a doctorate and now teaches Sports Management at Brock University.
What Olan Scott, a former Australian surfer who moved into the academic world is doing with his students who are studying sports management is very much a part of what the public needs – a better understanding of the celebrity phenomena and at the same time learn how celebrity is just one part of the changes taking place.
While we live lives that are local for the most part – what is going on around us is much more than local. What happens in Ukraine makes a difference in the home town – number of immigrants xxx
Brock University currently has one faculty operating in the city. Their Teacher Education program is operating in one of the high schools that was closed several years ago and are expected to take up residence in the former Bateman High School that is being converted into a Community centre that will include the Brock Teacher Education program.
What was once a high school got upgraded to a combined University operation and a large community hub that will include a much bigger library and sports facilities that will include three gymnasium and a swimming pool.
Interesting that Brock is doing more media work in Burlington than McMaster University that has a campus on the South Service Road. The Brock University leadership has done meet and greet presentations with the Chamber of Commerce membership.
Burlington Teen Tour Band, Canada’s oldest and largest youth marching band, is set to delight audiences locally and overseas this spring. The Burlington Teen Tour Band will have their spring concert April 7 and have been invited to participate in the 80th D-Day Anniversary Tour in England and France May 31 – June 10. These performances not only mark a thrilling chapter for the band but are also bolstered by the announcement of new Burlington Teen Tour Band Director of Bands & Music Services Roberto (Rob) Cuesta. Roberto (Rob) will begin in his new role on Feb. 20, 2024, as the creative force behind Burlington’s globally renowned marching band.
About Burlington Teen Tour Band Director Roberto Cuesta
Roberto (Rob) Cuesta
Roberto (Rob) brings over 28 years of experience in band and music services to the Burlington Teen Tour Band. He is a seasoned musician, marketer and business leader obtaining his Master of Business Administration with Distinction from Warwick Business School and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing. Roberto (Rob) has 18 years of youth work experience beginning with Scouts Canada and then Air Cadets which lead him to progressive leadership roles in both areas and an appointment as Band Master at an early age. By age 23, he became Director of Music running a band with 75 per cent of members under age 21 and later became National Training Director for the Traditional Youth Marching Band Association (TYMBA).
Most recently, Roberto (Rob) was Director of Music for the 48th Highlanders of Canada. He has ten years of experience as a Band Leader and an additional 14 years as a player in military-style wind bands such as: The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, The Governor General’s Horse Guards and The Band of the Hampshire Constabulary to name just a few.
The Family Lobby: Burlington Teen Tour Band marches into the space with every instrument blaring away. It was a great day for BPAC and the day the BTTB made the place their home base.
Annual Spring Concert
Featuring: Burlington Teen Tour Band and Junior Redcoats
Date: April 7, 2024
Time: Two ticketed performances at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Background: The Mayor of Courseulles-sur-Mer sent a personal invitation to the Burlington Teen Tour Band to attend the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. The band has taken part in past D-Day anniversary events including the 40th, 50th, 60th and 75th. The 80th anniversary may be the last large scale anniversary event to commemorate this historic event as the veterans who took part are becoming fewer and fewer. A tour like this is unique as it is by invitation only. The educational value is incredible with the opportunity to speak with the veterans directly and visit the Canadian war cemetery.
Last major tour took the Teen Tour Band to Ireland
About Burlington Teen Tour Band
The Burlington Teen Tour Band have been Canada’s Musical Ambassadors since 1947. They have developed a rich history over the last 75 years. Since its beginnings in 1947, the Burlington Teen Tour Band has grown into Canada’s oldest and largest youth marching band. The Burlington Teen Tour Band is known globally for its level of excellence in music and marching. They have had the honour and privilege to represent Burlington, Ontario, and Canada around the world in such countries as: England, Republic of Ireland, France, Japan, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. The Burlington Teen Tour Band regularly returns home to Burlington as champions or first prize winners from internationally scaled competitions. The Burlington Teen Tour Band travels the world representing Burlington, Ontario, and Canada. The band has performed for Heads of State and Royalty as well as been in television and movies. They have also performed at prestigious events such as the: Rose Bowl Parade, D-Day Anniversary, Orange Bowl Parade, 70th Anniversary of Pearl Harbour, and many more. Burlington Teen Tour Band is open to youth aged 13 to 21 who want to represent Canada as musical ambassadors.
The number of Canadians ending their lives through medically assisted death (MAID) has grown at a speed that outpaces every other nation in the world.
The Investigative Journalism Bureau, a non-profit newsroom based at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Toronto Star report that assisted deaths accounted for four per cent of all deaths in Canada in 2022 — up from one per cent in 2017, the first full year the legislation was in place. The number of MAID deaths quadrupled during that time. In 2022, the total number hit 13,000 nationwide — a 31 per cent jump from the previous year.
As Canada is poised to expand eligibility criteria under medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation, data from all 11 countries where the controversial end-of-life treatment exists shows Canada is the fastest-growing adopter in history, an analysis by the Investigative Journalism Bureau and the Toronto Star has found.
Some experts see the rapid growth as a human rights triumph that allows Canadians to make their own choice about when they wish to die with the full support of the state and their doctors. Others fear that failures in the health-care system and social safety net may be contributing to the surge.
“It’s kind of like my mind’s little Holy Grail,” he said of the government’s promise of accessing a physician-assisted death. “I’ve always been living my life with one foot out the door.”
Jeff Kirby, Dalhousie University
The Toronto Star reported that “Jeff Kirby, a professor emeritus in the department of bioethics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was a member of the federal expert panel tasked by the government in 2021 with drafting safeguards for the expansion of MAID into mental health.
“While he isn’t opposed to the idea, he stepped down from the panel prior to its final report in May 2022, saying safeguards suggested by experts ought to be legally entrenched rather than simply guidance.
“He remains fearful that the new rules welcoming mental health patients to seek MAID lack the rigour and protection to prevent tragedy.
“I really think that Canada as a whole will have lost if it proceeds to March 2024 with no changes,” he says. “I think we have lost a chance to adequately protect members of vulnerable, disadvantaged social groups in a way that we should have.”
They will answer the Roll Call when they meet at 9:30 this morning.
Last Council meeting in 2023: Usually an occasion to send season greetings to those watching – not this year. Just seven glum faces.
Hopefully they will be less grumpy than they appeared when they held their last Council meeting for 2023 on December 14th, 2023.
The new agenda set up will be revealed; Councillors will meet as a Committee of the Whole with the Mayor in the Chair. She will hear reports from each of the Standing Committees. It seemed a little awkward when set out on paper – but let’s see how it works out.
The Gazette will be there watching on your behalf.
Dania Thurman with ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns: joined at the hip?
We are also watching for a response from the Communications people is as to just who is the Administrative Assistant for ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns.
Dania Thurman announced via social media that she was delighted to be the new Administrate Assistant. Those announcements are usually made by the ward Councillor. So far nothing from Kearns.
By Staff
